102.5 The Party for Kids' Cafe
Bring-A-Toy Event
November 23, 2004
Nashville, TN

BECAUSE JPAC CARES
The following items, with a retail value of $1,957.85 (including shipping to Nashville), were donated to this event by members of Jamie's official chat club, Jamie's Place and Chat (JPAC).   We actually collected an even $1,000.00 from JPAC members, but I have a friend who owed me a favor, so I was able to get a huge number of the gifts at wholesale prices - which means, among other things, that one lucky child will end up with an $80.00 pair of Mizuno Volleyball shoes and a pair of $20.00 knee pads to go with them, and another lucky child will end up with a pair of soccer shoes, shorts and two pairs of socks totaling another $100.00!  The effort was also aided by the fact that someone very dear to me offered to pick up the shipping costs.  

It took 6 BIG boxes, and one BIGGER box, to get the 175+ pounds of books, toys, sporting equipment and clothing ready to Fed Ex to Nashville. Here's the list of what was sent:

  3   Boxes of Regular Sized Crayons - 96 pc each
  7   Boxes of Bob The Builder Crayons - 16 pcs each
16   Boxes of Jumbo Neon Crayons - 8 pc each
12   Boxes of Regular Sized Crayons - 8 pc each
12   Boxes of Jumbo Crayons - 8 pc each
  1   Play-Doh Color and Activity Book
  1   Play Zone Coloring Book
  1   Adventures of Robin Hood Giant Coloring Book
  1   Spiderman Color and Activity Book
  6   Avengers Coloring and Activity Books
  3   Precious Moments Learn and Color Workbooks
  3   Sports For Girls Coloring and Activity Books
  6   Jumbo Fun Coloring and Activity Books
  5   Care Bears Color and Activity Books
  5   Easy Start Beginners Coloring Books
  6   Cabbage Patch Kids Coloring and Activity Books
12   8 inch by 8 inch Color Your Own Jigsaw Puzzles
  5   Buckets of Jumbo Sidewalk Chalk - 21 pc each
  1   Cruella DeVille Soft Doll
  3   Mattel Barbie Dolls
  1   Chubba Chubba Stuffed Elephant
  1   Animal Valley Stuffed Elephant
  1   People Pals Stuffed Black Cat
  1   Stationery Set
  1   Nautical Cover - Bound Journal/Diary
  6   Boxes (4 cans each) Play Doh
  6   Boxes (2 cans each) Neon eXtreme Play Doh
  6   Flying Disks - "Totally Colorful"
  2   Milton Bradley Jungle Book 20 pc Jigsaw Puzzles
12   Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles of the US states & their capitals
  6   Bags of "Team Extreme" Plastic Soldiers - 50 pc each
  6   3-D Easy To Assemble Wood Model Kits
  6   Flarp Noise Putty - Assorted Odors
  3   Glitter Putty (Assorted Colors)
  3   Color Putty (Assorted Colors)
12   Decks of Double Coated Playing Cards ($100 bill on the back)
  8   Decks of Kid's Card Game "Old Maid"
  8   Decks of Kid's Card Game "Go Fish"
  8   Decks of Kid's Card Game "Hearts"
50   10 inch Punch Balls
12   Red, White and Blue Kick Bags (Hacky Sacks)
12   Basketball Kick Bags (Hacky Sacks)
  1   Hard Cover Backstreet Boys Book
  6   Hard Cover Disney's "A Bug's Life" Books
  3   Disney's Out and About With Pooh - Grow and Learn Books
  1   Hard Cover "Fairy Tale Of The Future Book - "Little Red Rocket Boots" (update of "Little Red Riding Hood")
  1   Hard Cover "Fairy Tale Of The Future Book - "The Misfit Martian" (update of "The Ugly Duckling")
  2   Hard Cover "My First Nascar Book"
  1   Soft Cover "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Colorful Holiday" Golden Book (box of 4 crayons included)
  6   Wassupp Dawg Clocks - LED Eyes (assorted colors) - Batteries included
  1   TV Times Clock
  2   Fisher-Price Grow To Pro "Learn To Hit A Baseball" Outdoor Activity
  1   My Little Pony Playground Rubber Ball
  1   Transformers Energon Playground Rubber Ball
  3   Wood and Metal Pick Up Sticks & Jacks and Ball Games
  3   Bags (101 pcs each) Glass Marbles
  2   Milton Bradley Connect Four Games
  2   Milton Bradley Yahtzee Games
  2   Milton Bradley Candy Land Games
  2   Milton Bradely Chutes and Ladders Games
  1   Joe Nemechek NASCAR Ultra Series Die Cast Car and Collector's Card
  1   Kareem Campbell The Pros Series One Skateboard with Rolling Wheels and Magnetic Feet
  2   Phillies Jim Thome & Seattle Mariners Ichiro Collectible Action Figures
  1   NASCAR Hot Wheels STOCKERZ - #12 Ryan Newman
  1   NASCAR Driver Action Figure with Stand #12 Ryan Newman
  1   NASCAR Driver Action Figure with Stand and 2000 NASCAR Champion Trophy #18 Bobby Labonte
  3   NASCAR Driver Action Figure with Stand #20 Tony Stewart
  3   NASCAR Driver Action Figure with Stand #24 Jeff Gordon
  1   NASCAR Driver Action Figure with Stand - Dale Earnhardt
  6   Dragon BallZ Forces of Evil Action Figures - Babidi & Pui-Pui
  1   Ryan Newman Team Caliber 164 scale NASCAR Die-Cast Model Kit
  1   Kurt Busch Team Caliber 164 scale NASCAR Die-Cast Model Kit
  1   Kawasaki Vulcan Super Bike, with display stand
  2   Go Bananas! Monkey Memory Card Games
  1   Creative Kids 17 pc Stencil Art Kit
  1   Space Dog Cosmic Adventure Game
  1   Rock'n Reptiles Race Game
  1   Action City Fire Station Play Set
  1   Action City Police Station Play Set
  2   26 piece Glow In The Dark Star Sets
  1   Fisher-Price Magna-Doodle
  1   Mini-Wheels Police Caravan 3 Vehicle Set
  1   Mini-Wheels Ambulance Rescue 3 Vehicle Set
  2   Road Rippers Hip Hoppers (trucks that are sound and/or motion activated) + AA Batteries for each of them
  1   Mattel Matchbox "Hero City" Sports Collection 5 pc set
  1   Fire Station 5 pc Die Cast Vehicle Set
  2   Fireman Helmets - Push Button On Front For Light and Sound
  2   3 in 1 Magna Scope Deluxe Set - Telescope/Microscope + accessories for both pcs of equipment (+ 2 AA Batteries for 
       each  set)
  1   Get Goofy Disney 16 oz Sports Cup
  1   Goody Girls 105 piece Hair Accessory Kit
  2   Disney Mickey Mouse Black Backpacks
  1   Pair of Girls Soccer Shoes, Shorts (and two pairs of socks)
  1   Pair Mizuno Wave Spike 7 Volleyball Shoes & VS1 Kneepads - Girls
  6   Girls Ceramic Trinket Boxes
  1   MTV Baseball Hat
  4   T-Shirts - Assorted Sayings
  1   Disney Collared Shirt
  4   Little Girl's Soft Purses - assorted colors
  1   One Size Fits All Disney (long) Nightie

385 TOTAL ITEMS
plus
400 Candy Canes
36 PEZ Dispensers with candy

Some of the items sent are pictured below.  They could have been better, maybe even in focus :-)  But when it's 2:00 AM and everything has to be ready to box and ship the next day, I didn't have enough energy left to argue with a digital camera that doesn't like overhead lighting combined with the cellophane in which most of the items were wrapped.   I'm sure that they're good enough to give you an idea of what ended up in those seven boxes that are now winging their way to Nashville, and that's all that matters.  Just as a point of interest ... 56.85 pounds of various books were sent (and that doesn't include the 50 boxes of crayons for the coloring/activity books!).

SPECIAL THANKS GOES TO:  Amanda, Ann, Antoinette, Becci, Bev, Cydne, Danelle, Dawn, Debbie, Elaine H., Elaine L., Elvie, George, Gina, Julie, Karen (and her nephew, Ryan), Kelli, Kelsey, Larry, Mareike, Michelle, Nance, Patsy, Phyllis, Rebecca, Sally, and Tina, without whose generous donations, none of this would have been possible.

AND NOW FOR THE REST OF THE NEWS:  Everyone who donated will get a copy of the script in an Adobe file format.  I think that most computers come with Adobe, but if you donated and you don't have it, download it now (it's free and available all over the Internet - just go to a government site if you can't find an Adobe download someplace else).  Once I've e-mailed the script to you, you can either keep it on your computer, save it to disk, or print it out -- up to you!  Now that I'm not balancing books, shopping, finding places to put nearly 400 gifts while still allowing room for my family room to live, taking pictures, packing and shipping things, I should have time to get the script converted within a reasonable amount of time (meaning I'm taking the rest of the week off and will start on Monday!).

The rest of the news is that I'm certain that Jamie will be happy to sign cover sheets for your scripts.  You will, however, have to wait for those until he has time to catch his breath ... he's obviously going to be in Nashville next week, then back to work, will be appearing on both "The View" and "Good Morning America" in December, then it will be Christmas -- you can see what I mean.  Somewhere in between all of that, I will get him to sign the cover sheets and then I'll mail them to each of you.

The reason that I'm sure Jamie will sign the cover sheets is that the cat is out of the bag with regard to what we've done here.  That's right, Jamie knows about it.  Let me just say that it's tough to keep a secret from that man and leave it at that.  The important part is that he's proud of JPAC, humbled that y'all would make this effort on his behalf and very, very happy that so many deserving children are going to benefit from your generosity.  He's promised to make every effort to send pictures of the event so that I can post them and there is the possibility that this event will be covered by more than the local media.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll see it on Extra or another one of those shows.

I think that covers everything except for my THANK YOU to everyone for making this possible.  Just goes to show you that one person can make a difference ... and it all starts with you!

Lois